When installing new sections of optical fiber within a communication network, knowledge of the optical characteristics of the fiber span is required in order to properly configure the various devices (e.g., optical amplifiers) deployed along the span. In most cases, the information associated with the fiber span characteristics takes the form of off-line documentation that accompanies the fiber span to the point of installation. In some cases, this documentation is either missing or incorrect, thus requiring the span to be measured in real time and its characteristics obtained so that the associated devices can be properly tuned for their best performance. Additionally, various diagnostic tests are generally performed once a fiber is installed, since a number of devices are best configured once the installation environment is known.
Methods to try and automate this span analysis are known in the prior art. Most of these arrangements are specially designed for systems that provide Raman amplification and, therefore, are not directly applicable to systems utilizing rare-earth doped fiber amplifiers.